DEVELOPING OTHERS
In the first of a new series about careers and lives in education, Dr David Porritt sits down with Emma De Goederen, Lecturer-researcher in International Primary Education at ITEPS, NHL Stenden.
The ripples created by an international educator
As she looks back, Emma De Goederen’s recalls an African dawn. The sun rises over Lake Malawi, and the natural world begins to wake. Monkeys scramble across the roof of her volunteer accommodation, far from the noise and demands of her more ‘usual’ life. She is living without reliable internet, eating by candlelight, adapting to the rhythm of the community around her. This was no holiday, but an unpaid sabbatical with Ripple Africa, a charity working alongside communities in Malawi, where she is supporting adult literacy, teacher development and early education. The experience gives her space to learn, reflect and reconsider how she wants to use her skills in the years ahead.
When Emma, then a primary school teacher at an international school in the Netherlands, returned home, she did so with a clear and renewed sense of purpose, something the demands of professional life can slowly obscure without us even noticing.
The roots of her renewal stretched back further to 2014, when Emma volunteered with the Book Bus in Zambia. There, working with adults as well as children, she discovered how much she enjoyed helping other educators learn and grow. Her later sabbatical in Malawi confirmed it. Developing adults, she realised, created “a knock-on effect on the children” and teacher development was not necessarily a move away from the classroom. Rather, it was a way of extending her influence far beyond it.
Career pathway
Today, Emma works on the International Teacher Education for Primary Schools programme, ITEPS, at NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands. She teaches students in the first and second years of their degree, helping to prepare them from the outset for multilingual and culturally diverse classrooms, exploring culturally responsive teaching, translanguaging and curricula including the IB Primary Years Programme, the British curriculum and the British Columbia curriculum. Teaching English as an International Language, phonics and reading, writing development and democratic citizenship, Emma also works as a tutor and thesis coach. It is teacher preparation built around international education, rather than adding the international dimension after earning a national qualification.
For young people considering teaching, this opens up a much wider world of possibility. ITEPS offers a direct route into international primary education, while the related International Teacher Education programme, ITE, prepares teachers for the secondary sector. In our international schools, a conversation with a teacher, careers adviser or school leader may be all it takes for a young person to discover a path they had never considered. The opportunity runs both ways, with schools able to offer student teacher placements, build partnerships and welcome graduates already prepared for international classrooms. There is real value in connecting schools with programmes that prepare teachers who respond intelligently to linguistic diversity and move confidently between curricula.
Teaching philosophy
When I asked Emma what defines excellent teaching, her answer was immediate and clear. It begins with knowing your students and building the relationships that reveal how each one learns. Pace matters too, with every child making progress from the beginning of a lesson to the end. When that progress does not happen, the teacher must ask why and decide what to do next. Emma also emphasised empathy and skilled communication, particularly the ability to adapt language and approach to different learners. For her, great teaching brings these elements together: secure professional knowledge, careful reflection and a deep understanding of people. It is rigorous, relational and profoundly human.
Balancing dreams
That same combination is visible in Emma’s work beyond the university. Her children’s book, Balancing Dreams, was inspired by communities in Malawi working towards greater equality, with boys sharing more household responsibilities and girls gaining greater opportunities to attend school and pursue their ambitions. Emma transformed that hopeful change into a story for children aged six to nine, celebrating possibility, fairness and the power of shared responsibility, presenting Malawi as the vibrant and beautiful place she loves. When traditional publishers did not respond, she refused to let the idea fade and taught herself the demanding process of self-publishing.
Emma’s career has been shaped less by titles than by purpose. In the classroom, she developed children. At ITEPS, she now develops those who will go on to teach hundreds more. Through Ripple Africa and Balancing Dreams, that influence reaches further still, into communities and the imaginations of young readers. Towards the end of our conversation, Emma reflected that no educator can change every life, but each of us can make a difference to “one person, one community, in one moment”. Education often works this way. The effect of one relationship, one conversation or one act of encouragement rarely ends in the moment itself. It travels outwards, shaping others in ways we may never fully see. Those are the ripples at the heart of Emma’s story. Developing others is not simply part of education. It is the work itself.
Dr David Porritt is Director of Coaching and Leadership Development at Karen Ardley Associates and a Senior Consultant with Consilium Education. He writes a monthly column for International Teacher Magazine, featuring educators from across the international community.
Balancing Dreams by Emma de Goederen is available digitally and in paperback through Amazon. Further information about Ripple Africa and its volunteering opportunities is available from rippleafrica.org, while details of ITEPS and ITE can be found through NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences. To hear more of Emma’s story, listen to her conversation on the Leading Stories podcast.
Feature and support images kindly provided by David.
